Tiny Core Linux 4.1 Released

Tiny Core Linux is an 11 MB graphical Linux based on the 2.6 kernel, BusyBox, Tiny X, Fltk, and Flwm. It’s a minimal but extendable distro that runs from memory and loads from any bootable device. Version 4.1 has just been released with many improvements detailed in therelease announcement, including app upgrades and bug fixes. 4.1 continues Tiny Core’s rapid evolution, which has seen point release upgrades every month or two.

I don’t think a multi-core, 64-bit machine with multiple GBs of RAM is the target environment for TCL. The team has created a useable, stable Linux based OS that is small enough to boot from the embedded Flash drive of an Intel-based NAS or thin client, yet scales up to a full fledged home computer quite nicely.

There are several projects out there that may interest you more, like BareMetalOS and MenuetOS.

Meanwhile, I’m quite happy with running TCL on my Wyse thin client as a fanless media server that also makes for a capable emergency nettop in a pinch. Plenty of “real use” right there.

See my post above. 32-bit minimal OSes certainly have their place, just not necessarily on one’s main desktop.

For example, I have a Wyse x86-based thin client that is quite efficient and useable with Tiny Core Linux installed to the 32MB internal Flash chip, and a USB drive for storage. It’s a great media server but it would also do well as a general purpose second machine or as a fallback when the main rig dies. It’s portable enough to take to someone else’s house and attach an existing keyboard, mouse and monitor for a nice web browsing machine without the risks involved in borrowing their machine for the duration.

Apart from CPU-intensive tasks, there really are very few things it can’t do compared to a modern 64-bit system. Yet if I had the “nothing but 64 bits” mentality it would have ended up in the trash heap a long time ago. Thanks to TCL it continues to serve a purpose.

It only takes more memory if the software is written in the standard way which uses 64-bit pointers.

It’s quite possible to write software which uses 32 bits or even 16 bit offset pointers. There is even a Linux kernel and a GCC build model that uses 32-bit pointers while running in 64-bit mode on x86_64 CPUs. It’s called x32.